Is it possible to collaborate in a very competitive MEMS ......Confidential and Proprietary INTRODUCTION •Richard Feynman: “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” 1959 Two challenges:

Is it possible to collaborate in a very competitive MEMS market?

Irina Stateikina, PhD

Senior Scientist in MEMS R&D

Presented at MWS November 12, 2019 in Munich

Confidential and Proprietary

INTRODUCTION

• Richard Feynman: “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” 1959

❑ Two challenges:

• Micro-motor – 1960

• Scaling down 1/25000 – 1985

• Miniaturization

• Diversity of application

• Niche markets

• Competition

http://memscyclopedia.org/Document/IntroMEMS.pdf

http://memscyclopedia.org/Document/IntroMEMS.pdf


STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

• Many fields looking into miniaturization using MEMS

❑ Automotive

❑ Communication

❑ Point-of-care devices/Lab-on-a chip, etc.

• Many competitors

❑ Development of new MEMS-based sensors

❑ Working on the same application

❑ Shorten the time to market

❑ Importance to be the first


PROPOSED SOLUTION

• Companies in a competitive market

• Is there any way to collaborate?

• Proposal comes from the experience:

❑ MEMS could be complex

❑ Creation of each device comprises numerous steps

❑ Individual steps do not constitute the whole device and cannot be reverse-engineered

• One of collaboration models is the development of individual steps


EXAMPLE 1: H2 anneal development

• Necessity of high aspect ratio features in MEMS

❑ Created by DRIE – scalloping

• Si roughness smoothing technique in MEMS

❑ Smaller scalloping and other variations of RIE

❑ Thermal oxidation

❑ H2 anneal

• H2 anneal smoothing uses Si migration phenomena

❑ High temperature

❑ Hydrogen ambient

❑ Low pressure

• Single wafer equipment


EXAMPLE 1: H2 anneal development

• Development of the H2 anneal in a vertical oxidation furnace

❑ Andy Bavin (SPT)

❑ Mouawad Daher (SPT)

❑ Khaled-Amir Belarbi (Teledyne Dalsa)

• Sub-atmospheric, batch side-wall smoothing

• Demonstration of technology to numerous clients


EXAMPLE 2: Optimization of the wafer drying cycle

• Marangoni-type drying

❑ “Mass transfer along an interface between two fluids due to a gradient of the surface tension”

❑ Two fluids with different surface tension

• DI water

• IPA

• Akrion Gama Wet Processor

❑ Fully automated

❑ Dry in/Dry out

❑ LuCID Dryer, i.e. Low Consumption IPA Dryer


EXAMPLE 2: Optimization of the wafer drying cycle

• Use of existing LuCID Dryer system on Akrion Gama wet bench to develop the optimized drying and stiction prevention

❑ Master of Science student, Pooya Laamerad

❑ Akrion process engineer

• Developed two sets of processes dedicated to:

❑ Optimal drying

❑ Stiction prevention

Released beams stiction

No stiction on released beams


EXAMPLE 3: MEMS and the Assembly

• Development of the sensor SFS2070 for Indoor Air Quality

• The company created by a successful collaboration of three universities

❑ Cambridge University

❑ Universidad Politecnica de Madrid

❑ Warwick University

• Device fabrication in MEMS Fab

• Introduction to the advance packaging in the same facility

• Close collaboration between the two departments

❑ Device fabrication

❑ Dies singulation

❑ Dies placement and wire bond

❑ Ceramic substrates singulation


EXAMPLE 3: MEMS and the Assembly

• SFS2070 for Indoor Air Quality

Image curtesy of Sorex Sensors


EXAMPLE 4: Optical Switch

• Optical switch development – base product

• Have a right idea

• Find the right people to execute this idea

• Willingness to share and the ability to let go of some of the control

❑ Know how to put the necessary protection in place, e.g. patent

❑ Support applied research

❑ Allow the possibility to publish

❑ Keep projects reasonable in size – with the clear end

• Knowledge of the MEMS world

❑ Find more than a single foundry



• Creation of different components to be integrated on the same platform

Image curtesy of Aeponyx



Images curtesy of Aeponyx



• Use of stealth dicing for die singulation, opto-electronic assembly, and advanced packaging

Image curtesy of Aeponyx


Initial investment of 221M$

• 83M$ from

• 95M$ from

• 43M$ from more than 70 equipment vendors & partners

• More than 23M$ added in equipment since 2011

C2MI organization

• Founded in 2010

• Infrastructure owned by University of Sherbrooke

• Non-for-profit entity

• Qualified CECR

– MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre

• 200 mm MEMS foundry

• Assembly

• Card-attach

• Printed electronics

• Reliability Laboratory

• Analysis Laboratory

Shorter time to market

Prototyping and development on industrial

equipment set

Collaboration with industry and academic leaders in the critical development steps

Flexible IP managementCommercialization

support

Integrated supply chain

Mentoring and coaching of new

businesses

A powerful model

www.c2mi.ca


Documents

Is it possible to collaborate in a very competitive MEMS ......Confidential and Proprietary INTRODUCTION •Richard Feynman: “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” 1959 Two challenges: